Children dealing with deafness and blindness can get help in New Orleans

The Louisiana Deafblind Project, a program at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans School of Allied Health Professions Human Development Center, is seeking to identify children and youth with both deafness and blindness at an earlier age to provide best practice techniques to overcome the unique challenges of dual-sensory impairments.

The LSUHSC’s Louisiana Deafblind Project provides services statewide at no cost to those from birth through 21 who have both a vision and hearing loss at the same time. Coordinated by Cassondra Glausier, the program’s services include technical assistance, training, information, and referral to educators, families and service providers. The only requirement is that the child must be entered into the LADBP Deafblind Registry.

The project is required by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs to maintain a statewide registry of children and youth with deaf-blindness.

LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans needs assistance to identify children and youth who are, or may become, deaf-blind. Children do not have to be totally deaf and totally blind. Services are available to children and youth with any degree of the combination hearing and vision loss. Most of the children served have useable vision and hearing. The free services are provided in homes, day care centers, schools, or any place a child with deaf-blindness may be receiving other services.

Any family member, educator or service provider of a child or youth who meets the eligibility requirements for deaf-blindness and has been referred to the Louisiana Deaf-blind Registry can request information, resources, professional development, or technical assistance from the project.

The project also includes a family training program designed to provide family members access to information, training and resources pertaining to deaf-blindness. This is a mini course that teaches parents about the impact of deafblindness, vision loss, hearing loss and interventions. It's a DVD-based training and assists the parents in building a personal profile for their child. LSUHSC’s program is also part of southeast consortium of deafblind projects that are partnering to develop a parent-driven network focused on resources and topics of interest in deafblindness.